Postdoctoral position within the Bio4Energy prog

Umeå University - with its 33,000 students and over 4,000 employees - is an organisation in constant change and development.Umeå University conducts groundbreaking research within several areas - several in which we are among the best in the world - within others regarded as the leaders in Sweden.We are one of Sweden's largest providers of education and offer a broad and attractive range of courses and programmes.Our campus constitutes an inspiring environment for everyone that studies and works here.We wish to co-operate with companies and organisations throughout the Umeå region and all over the world.Postdoctoral position within the Bio4Energy programme: Enzymatic modification of wood polymers Bio4Energy is a strategic research effort with focus on bioenergy and the biorefinery of lignocellulose (www.bio4energy.se).The consortium behind Bio4Energy consists of Umeå University, Luleå University of Technology, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, R&D companies, and other industrial partners.Activities within Bio4Energy are connected to several pilot plants, which are located in Örnsköldsvik, Umeå, and Piteå and which are devoted to research on sustainable biofuels from lignocellulose.Bio4Energy is organized into seven research platforms.A postdoctoral position is now open within the Biochemical platform, which has the aim to develop novel biocatalysts and bioprocesses designed for efficient conversion of lignocellulose to commodities such as second-generation biofuels, green chemicals and biomaterials.The postdoctoral position is linked to prof.Leif J. Jönsson's group in Technical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of Umeå University.The Department of Chemistry (www.chemistry.umu.se) conducts research in the areas of biological chemistry, environmental biogeochemistry and technical chemistry.The department has a strong focus on interdisciplinary work and has good access to modern analytical instrumentation including facilities within the Chemical Biological Centre (www.kbc.umu.se).Research in prof.Jönsson's group is carried out in laboratories in Umeå and in Örnsköldsvik and involves collaborations within several strong research environments such as Bio4Energy and BioImprove (www.bioimprove.se), with biorefinery-oriented industry in the region (see www.processum.se and www.bioraffinaderi.se), and with academic partners such as the Umeå Plant Science Centre (www.upsc.se).The postdoctoral project deals with enzymes and biomimetic agents involved in the modification of wood polymers.Enzymes involved in polymerization and depolymerization of wood will be investigated.Enzymatic deconstruction of wood is an important step in the generation of sugars which, in subsequent biotechnical and/or thermochemical steps, can be converted to other products, such as liquid biofuels.Enzymatic and biomimetic modification of lignin and lignin derivatives will also be investigated. For further information, please contact prof.Leif J. Jönsson.Documents sent electronically should be in MS Word or PDF format.